ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 107 



in conjunction witli the young dog's under his care, 

 but shook off the dread or monomania on a most 

 confident assurance from me, tliat as long- as he 

 could drink his beer, and continued his inclination 

 for it, he would never have liydrophobia. He was 

 satisfied with my assurance, and is alive and well 

 to this day. 



I never, in the long experience I have had witli 

 hounds and dogs of all descriptions, considerably 

 over half a century, always having been with stag- 

 hounds and foxhounds, huntsman in field and 

 kennel, have been bitten by hound or dog. A 

 bite of the sort should ever be avoided, as much for 

 the fact of any real danger, as the effect which it 

 might have on the mind, through nervous appre- 

 hensions. A mental ghost, that has no real or 

 tangible foundation, is the most difficult of all to 

 deal with ; and let us for a moment reflect on how 

 many people have been made nervously miserable 

 for years, because very foolish people have destroyed 

 the dog that bit them, assuming him to be hydro- 

 phobically mad, and by the death of the dog at 

 once preventing the poor creature recovering, and 

 living on in health and happiness, and, by so doing, 

 to relieve the mind from all future apprehension. 



